The present invention relates to checkout systems and methods and more specifically to a checkout device with a multi-touch input device.
A multi-touch input device recognizes two or more simultaneous touches, allowing a user to interact with a computer through various finger gestures on a surface of the multi-touch input device. Multi-touch finger gestures may include swipes, pinches, rotations, and other actions.
Microsoft Surface is a computing platform that is capable of multi-touch input. It includes a rear projection display and infrared or near-infrared (IR) cameras that can see fingers and objects placed on the display.
Conventional point-of-sale terminals typically include a keyboard and display (or a touch screen), and a plurality of separate peripherals including a cash drawer, one or more barcode readers, a scale (which may be integrated into the barcode reader), a card reader, a signature pad, and a printer. Adding multi-touch technology to a conventional point-of-sale terminal would add cost, cost that retailers may be unwilling to support despite the benefits of multi-touch input.
However, retailers wish to reduce transaction time and expedite the customer checkout process. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a checkout device designed from the ground up to include multi-touch input technology.